Stewards of the Future
Sustainability through innovation
Environmental research at University of Windsor is grappling with some of the greatest challenges to face humanity, as researchers confront climate change, threats to waterways, habitat loss and regional sustainability. With the Great Lakes on all sides, it is fitting that the University of Windsor is a leader in freshwater research.
A new bridge can disrupt the species that live in that the river below and the overall riverbed ecosystem. For many years, infrastructure planners have relocated the animals living along riverbeds, but is it working? Thanks to a Mitacs-funded project, Dr. Catherine Febria, Canada Research Chair in Freshwater Restoration Ecology and Director of the Healthy Headwaters lab, is finding out, along with partners from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and Dufferin Construction Company. To date, early data suggest that relocated species at risk, like mussels, are not thriving in their new homes. Dr. Febria’s team is quantifying those impacts and identifying reasons that transplants may be failing, to make future moves more successful. This includes improving the way we measure habitat to better pair species with new homes, and developing new training protocols for the officials overseeing future moves. Thanks to new analysis of decades of data, Febria’s team plans to recommend new policies and influence future actions that protect essential species in Canada’s waterways and beyond. They will also make recommendations for habitat restoration that can be implemented after new infrastructure is installed.
Members of Dr. Catherine Febria’s research team, along with a collaborator from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, take measurements in the Grand River at a site of freshwater mussel relocation.
110
Environmental projects active in 2021-2022
4
Canada Research Chairs in water research
Reaching new audiences
2021-2022 was an exciting year for science communication at the Freshwater Restoration Ecology Centre (FREC), led by Dr. Trevor Pitcher’s Freshwater Restoration Ecology Centre (FREC), a leading University of Windsor research facility built and managed in partnership with the Town of Lasalle. Their work involves breeding captive populations of threatened and endangered fish species, including lake sturgeon and redside dace. FREC is one of the only facilities in Canada to have a captive population of redside dace, which is one of the most threatened freshwater species in the country. Not only did FREC collaborate with Ripley’s Aquarium in Toronto to show a group of their redside dace to the public as part of the aquarium’s Conservation Conversations program, but they also captured rare footage of redside dace feeding and spawning in the wild. This footage which was bought by TVO for part of the 2022 documentary series, Great Lakes Untamed. Dr. Pitcher’s research group was able to use the proceeds of this footage to illustrate a children’s book, Rory the Redside Dace, available wherever great children’s books are sold, written by graduate student Ashley Watt. In addition to these exciting public communications of their research, Dr. Pitcher’s team is examining the environmental limits (both temperature and other stressors such as road salt) that will eventually inform climate policy. The lab also looks forward to developing systems for reintroducing species into waterways that are informed by the data they have collected at FREC and additional children’s books about threatened and endangered species of freshwater fishes.
Graduate student Ashley Watt, pictured with a 3D printed model of a redside dace, is the author of Rory, the Redside Dace, a book that teaches children about freshwater ecology.
Pictured above, cover of Rory, The Redside Dace
Freshwater Restoration Ecology Centre (FREC)
Besides conducting scientific research, the centre serves as an educational facility for the community, offering programming on conservation biology, water quality and habitat remediation.